ICF billings warrant review

Apparently the Road Home program is not all contractor ICF International does sloppily. The firm also has been plagued by problems and insufficient documentation in some of its billings to the state, prompting a recent state audit questioning millions of dollars in expenses submitted by the firm.

The report by Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot listed a number of deficiencies in $12.7 million in billings submitted during an eight-month period ending in June. The report said ICF has recently provided additional documentation that could eventually resolve some or all of those issues.

Mr. Theriot and state officials need to continue pressing the firm to ensure that taxpayers did not pay for any unjustified or unauthorized expenses. They also should insist on a refund if the company cannot resolve the auditors' concerns.

Auditors found that during the period reviewed ICF billed the state almost $298 million for labor, management fees and other Road Home expenses. The state had paid the firm almost $294 million as of the auditor's review.

The report raised questions about only 4 percent of the firm's expenses. But in a contract as large as this one, that still amounted to a sizable amount in questionable billings, according to the report. The $12.7 million is more than double the state's annual allocation for food banks that help feed hundreds of thousands of people annually.

The billing problems included insufficient documentation for labor charges, overbilling for subcontractor labor and charges for items that were not covered by the state's contract with ICF. The auditors also challenged expenses that the report said "appeared questionable, " including items for travel and cell phones.

Paul Rainwater, director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the state's Office of Community Development, said he's working on recovering money the state may have paid for the overbillings the report identified. His office needs to be aggressive in those efforts.

For his part, Mr. Theriot's office needs to continue reviewing the company's billings. The invoices examined in its recent report cover only about a third of the $912 million cost of ICF's Road Home contract.

That's a lot of money for what has been, at best, a mediocre performance. The least Louisianians deserve is that every penny paid is justifiable.